


The Ferris Wheel

by Vanillybean



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Paulkins - Freeform, but have a nice time, but jane was there to make it good, can you guess what happens, carnival games are involved, emma had a rough childhood, father figure hidgens (mentioned), it's what they deserve, she just misses her sister, they don't wanna be there, they're just two dorks, they're on a ferris wheel and
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:14:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24070399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vanillybean/pseuds/Vanillybean
Summary: Emma and Paul separately decide to go to the fair and are really not enjoying it. However, when they're paired for the ferris wheel both their nights get a lot better.
Relationships: Paul Matthews & Emma Perkins, Paul Matthews/Emma Perkins
Comments: 8
Kudos: 40





	The Ferris Wheel

Emma paced her room anxiously. It shouldn’t be this hard, just go. Just go, it might be fun.

She ran her fingers through her hair, staring at the ticket tacked to her mirror.

She died a long time ago, and it’s what she would’ve wanted, Emma thought to herself. She ran her fingers over the ticket. It expired tomorrow, great. Soon the last thing Jane gave her would be nothing more than worthless paper.

Emma turned it over to the back where a pink sticky note was hastily attached, reading ‘go see the ferris wheel for me! Love, Jane’. Ugh, screw it. She threw on her jacket and bolted outside with the ticket, on a mission to get to the Hatchetfield County Fair.

\---

“Paul!” Mr. Davidson caught his last employee leaving for the day. “I didn’t see you in the break room.”

Paul chuckled as he inched toward the front door. “Yeah, I just ate lunch at my desk. A lot of work to catch up on.” He hoped this little conversation would be over soon but much to his disappointment, his boss slapped a hand to his shoulder.

“Well Paul, you missed these!” he shoved a ticket into Paul’s hand. “You should go, it’ll be good for you.”

Paul grimaced at the ticket in his hand. “Yeah, I’m not really a county fair kind of guy, maybe you can give this to Carol, or I bet Bill would like to take Alice-”

“He’s gone for the day! Come on Paul, you might even meet someone.” He pulled Paul uncomfortably closer and disclosed, “I hear there’s even a Dippin’ Dots now.”

Paul wriggled away, one hand on the door knob. “Yeah, I’ll think about it Mr. Davidson!”

Once in his car, Paul contemplated his ticket. It was only 5 on a Friday, he could just go before it closed so he would have an excuse for leaving early. Eh, why not? It’s not like he had anything better to do.

~

“Ma’am, the ticket?”

“Huh? Oh right.” Emma pulled out the paper but hesitated before handing it over. Jane would have wanted her to go, but it just felt wrong to give away the last gift from her. Before she could put it back, the man snatched it from her. Emma stayed frozen for a second, about to protest, but he was already tearing off the perforated edge.

“Put on this bracelet with the ticket number. NEXT!”

Emma, still slightly stiff, was pushed through the line and into the fair. She took a long look at everything around her.

Blue and white striped tents were pitched everywhere, overworked and underpaid teenagers dreadfully manned the rides, bored employees fried up ungodly greasy food. It seemed like the kind of place Jane would take Tim to on days off, with all the bright colors and light rock music playing. It wasn’t really Emma’s thing.

No, she preferred to spend a quiet night alone with her little indoor garden when she wasn’t working her shitty job at Beanies. Hidgens had told her he wanted her to get out once in a while too, and she really didn’t want to disappoint him, no matter how much she wanted to be alone or how much she thought he was being hypocritical about this.

She shook off the thoughts as she headed for the one reason she came: The ferris wheel.

The line for it was surprisingly short. There were only a few people in line, which included a mother and her young son (who painfully reminded Emma of her sister), a couple who looked to be on a date, two teenage girls, and a man in a black suit jacket. Huh, he looked really out of place. Maybe he was an inspector or something.

She got behind the inspector man, and soon enough the line was let into the ride.

“Two to a cart, please!” someone called.

It was then that Emma realized everyone but her and the inspector man were paired off. Great, she thought. They had to ride together.

They hopped into the cart, trying to make it the least amount of awkward possible, while the ride director came around and fastened their seatbelts. The ferris wheel started slow and continued slower. Was this all it did? Emma tapped the stranger next to her, it looked like they were gonna be there awhile anyway. He turned to her, and she got a better look at his face.

He was kinda cute! He looked nice, had pretty blue eyes and was smiling at her. Holy shit he was smiling at her!

Emma suddenly forgot what she was about to say, so she made something up. “So what’s your name?” ok, not a bad start.

The man’s eyes flicked down to her own and he breathed out a slight laugh. “Paul. What’s yours?”

“Emma, Emma. So Paul, I gotta ask, why the suit? Are you undercover?” she gasped and brought her voice to a whisper, leaning in closer. She swears she could feel Paul blush. “Are you a spy?”

“Ha, I wish. No, I work at CCRP, my boss was giving me a hard time about not having fun and we had these company tickets for the fair. I figured if I went I could get him off my back.” In the back of his mind, Mr. Davidson’s words came back up: you might even meet someone.

Emma nodded, thinking herself about how Hidgens was wanting her to go and have fun. “Go do something!” he had told her. “You work yourself almost dead. It hurts to see you so worn out all the time, dear. Just try and find something you like to do. And by God, get some rest!” She thought back to their conversations and caught herself relating to Paul.

“I feel you, Paul. Honestly I don’t really want to be here either.”

“Why not?”

Emma shifted around in her seat, choosing her next words carefully. Just as she was about to open her mouth, she and Paul were jerked forward. “Oof!”

She looked over at Paul, who was wide eyed and scanning their surroundings wildly. Emma followed his gaze and realized the ride didn’t just stop working, no, it stopped working - with her and Paul at the very top of the ferris wheel.

“Whoa! Look how high up we are, Paul! Paul?” Emma looked over at her ride partner, who looked like he was on the verge of throwing up. His skin was getting more pale with every second and the sweat coming off his forehead didn’t look like it would stop anytime soon.

Emma felt bad for him, maybe the guy had a fear of heights or something. That’d be unfortunate. “Hey,” she started, not really sure where she was going with this. “You don’t look too good, man.”

“Yeah uh, I didn’t think I’d have to be up high for so long.”

Emma thought for a moment. She was never good with comfort, neither were her parents. But Jane was, always. She tried to think back to what her sister would say. She racked her brain for words Jane had said to her when they were kids, when they were scared, when it was just them.

“It’s alright, Paul. It’s a little scary now but we’ll be out soon. Besides, it can’t get any worse.” She noticed he started to relax a little bit so she kept talking. “You know, when I was a kid, me and my sister used to go to the park. There was this treehouse thing there, and I always tried to climb to the top but she would tell me no, that I wouldn’t be able to get down. I always ignored her.” she chuckled fondly at the memories. “And every time she’d have to come pull me out and drag me to the bottom. And every time we’d go back, I would try to climb it again. I guess I just never learned.” Emma wasn’t really sure why she was telling her life story to this stranger, but he seemed calmer with every word, and that made her happy.

“Did you ever get down by yourself?”

Emma snorted. “Hell no, Jane was helping me out of there til I was ten and she was in her teen years. Speaking of,” she pointed to the ground. “Here come the maintenance people!”

Paul sighed. “Oh thank God.” It wasn’t that he wanted to leave Emma, he just wanted to be off the damn ride.

The ferris wheel slowly churned its way down and Paul and Emma hopped off, relieved to stand up again.

“Ugh,” Emma breathed, “It feels so good to walk around, I don’t want to come back here again.”

“Me neither.”

They walked side by side toward the exit when Paul stopped them both. “Hey Emma, do you like games?”

Emma’s face lit up. “Like carnival games?”

~

They found a ring toss booth, and the line was dead. Perfect, Emma thought, the last thing she wanted to do is wait another damn minute. She tapped on the counter of the booth to get the man’s attention. “Excuse me?”

The man bounced up from his seemingly half awake state. “Hm?”

“Uh, how much for two turns?”

“Five dollars.”

Paul handed him the money. “I’ve got it, Em.” as soon as he said it he regretted it. Em? It was way too early for nicknames.

Emma's cheeks flushed pink and she put her wallet away. “Oh. Thank you. You go first, Paul.”

Paul took the rings and aimed at the bottles. He threw the first one and it missed the stack completely. The operator stifled a laugh and Emma glared at him. “Don’t you laugh at him,” she scolded.

Paul took another shot and this time the ring bounced off the neck and hit the pavement pitifully. “I’m not very good at these types of things,” he said quietly, almost embarrassed. Emma pat his shoulder reassuringly.

“It’s alright, Paul. You still have another shot!”

Paul grinned at her optimism, she was right! He lined up the last ring with the middle of the bottle arrangement and tossed. The ring hit two bottles and fell in between them. 

“Well that’s bullshit, these games are rigged anyway. Don’t worry about it, Paul. Let’s go.”

“You’re right, but you do have a turn.”

“Oh.” She waited while the rings were collected, then she took the first one and threw it haphazardly into the bottle formation. It went perfectly around the neck of the middle bottle. She threw the next one, which fell onto the front bottle. She smiled at herself, but really just wanted the day to be over. She flicked the last one and heard the familiar clink of a winning toss.

The operator rang a bell and Paul patted her on the shoulder. “Hey that was awesome, Emma! You’re really good at this!”

“Aw it was nothing,” Emma brushed it off, but was secretly enjoying it. It’d been a while since she’d gotten a compliment from someone that wasn’t Hidgens or some stupid relative \ she didn’t even like.

The man in the booth said monotonously, “congratulations, please pick one of these prizes.”

“How about I get like a hundred bucks instead?” she joked.

He looked unimpressed. “Haha, very funny. Pick a prize.”

Emma scanned the prize table. There was nothing she really wanted but she got an idea. “How about that one?” she pointed to a particular stuffed animal at the back.

The guy handed it to her, “here you are, miss.”

Emma cradled her little yellow mouse then turned to Paul with a wide grin on her face. “For you.”

Paul looked at her, confused but flattered. “Me?”

“Yeah!” she handed him the stuffed Pikachu. “As a thank you.” they moved away from the booth and toward the exit. She continued, “I had a fun time tonight and I don’t think I would have if I hadn’t met you. So, thank you!”

Paul glanced down at her. He was really enjoying this girl more and more. “Well, thank you, Emma. I know you know this but you definitely made my night better on the ferris wheel.” He hesitated as they were nearing the parking lot, he really didn’t want to split. “Hey so, we should do this again sometime. Not necessarily the fair, but see each other I mean. Only if you want to-”

“I’d love that, Paul.” she cut him off. “Hey, well I’m a barista at Beanies and I work all day tomorrow, maybe you can come in?”

Paul visibly relaxed. “Definitely. I’ll see you tomorrow then, Emma.”

~

The next day, Paul was getting ready to take his break and go see Emma at Beanies. He was about to stand up from his desk when Ted rolled his chair over.

“Hey Paul, are you going to Starbucks?”

“No, Beanies actually.”

Ted grimaced. “Why? It’s like a block further.” 

Paul tried to hide his smile. “Yeah, well some things are worth it. They have something that Starbucks doesn’t.”

“Whatever.” he rolled closer to Paul’s desk. “What in the flippity fuck is that?”

Paul followed where he was looking. “Oh it’s a Pikachu!” He picked it up and showed Ted. “You like it?”

“I should’ve known you play with dolls. Girls don’t like that, you know.”

Paul stroked the Pikachu head with his thumb before putting it back next to his monitor. “Maybe, Ted. Maybe not.”

**Author's Note:**

> some paulkins fluff! it's what they deserve.  
> let me know what you think! i love hearing from you guys!


End file.
